[Rhodes22-list] S/V Silverheels Bow Sprit/Anchor Roller

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Peter,

After I watched your video, I went on-line and looked at what’s available off the shelf for anchor rollers.  For a couple hundred $, you can get a 23-1/2” long electropolished 304 SS anchor roller.  The installation specs say this anchor roller can protrude unsupported past the bow up to 33% of the total length, or up to 7.83”.  That seems like plenty of clearance for the size anchors we use on our Rhodes 22’s.  Of course, you would have to shim under it to raise it up over the toe rail.  However, a piece of UV stabilized ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) is easily found in the correct shim thickness.  UHMWPE is really easy to work with and basically indestructible.  You could use the same thru bolts that hold down the anchor roller and you wouldn’t have to touch the bow pulpit stanchion thru bolts..  I’m envisioning rather than a bow sprit, you would just have the anchor roller and UHMWPE shim that would have the same foredeck footprint as the anchor roller.  This concept wouldn’t interfere with the roller furling control line and wouldn’t have any hard to clean dead spaces.  Also, zero maintenance!

Or, do you just like the look of a bow sprit, which is also perfectly OK.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium



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________________________________
From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> on behalf of Peter Nyberg <peter at sunnybeeches.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 9, 2019 3:40:57 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] S/V Silverheels Bow Sprit/Anchor Roller

Roger,

Thanks for the input:

1. I’m aware that most epoxies don’t stand up well to UV exposure.  Since I wasn’t sure how the bow sprit and anchor roller were going to work out, I decided not to worry about long term appearance initially.  Now that I’m past the ‘proof of concept’ stage, I’ll need to come up with a plan for maintenance.  I do like the look of the wood grain, so it’s likely a varnish will be part of the solution.

2.  It didn’t occur to me to worry about the furling line chafing through the epoxy.  In general, the routing of the furling line is an area where I failed to plan adequately.  Routing the line under the sprit as I showed in the video, resulted in the line being bunched up toward the bottom of the furler spool which would sometime result in the jib not unfurling completely.  I moved the line above the sprit, which worked better, but is still not completely trouble-free.  This is an area that I’ll need to look at again in the spring.

While I didn’t notice any buildup of dirt under the bow sprit, that’s probably mostly due to the fact that I didn’t look.  There’s no question that the sprit blocks easy access to some areas of the deck.  How much this matters probably depends mostly on your personal cleanliness standards.

Peter Nyberg
Coventry, CT
s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)

> On Nov 9, 2019, at 8:47 AM, ROGER PIHLAJA <roger_pihlaja at msn.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> I watched your video tutorial on the Bow Sprit/Anchor Roller.  Interesting concept.  I have 2 comments:
>
>
>  1.  Are you going to leave the clear epoxy finish on the bow sprit?  The reason I ask is because epoxy has poor UV resistance.  It would be better to protect the epoxy with a coat of paint or at least marine spar varnish.
>  2.  The bow sprit seems to have been left with a “dead space” under it.  You have threaded your roller furling control line thru this space.  (Interesting Fairlead!)  But, are you concerned the roller furling control line will eventually chafe thru the epoxy coating?  Also, won’t this dead space under the bow sprit collect dirt & crud and be very difficult to keep clean?
>
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>
> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10